A must read for those with male-factor

It’s relief to finally start seeing more conversation about the male side of things, it has been woefully neglected for far too long. Jumping straight to ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) is not the only choice in fact there are lots of things that might be contributing to your MFI and there ARE things you can do to improve semen parameters. Don’t rely on your fertility clinic to be an expert in the male side make sure he sees a urologist who does!!

My DH (dear husband) and I have been on a mission to improve his extremely bad sperm (so bad we were told even ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) wasn’t likely to work if we couldn’t reduce the DNA fragmentation) and we’ve already seen some improvements earlier this year. In 5 days we go back to our urologist to find out if 6 months of serious lifestyle changes and a varicocele operation has improved things for us. Weird mix of terrified and excited!

Comments (10)

Thanks for sharing that article, male factor infertility is so widely ignored and still people assume the reason we’re having IVF (in vitro fertilization) if all due to issues to do with me! Have shared it with my amazing husband and luckily, this testing part of our lives has brought us closer together, not further apart!!

Wishing you the best of luck for your appointment. There’s lots is of stories and research that says that lifestyle changes can make a huge difference to sperm production so hope it has adds some positivity to your journey! X

Thanks for sharing - may I ask what the results was from the initial sperm fr...

Posted
12/08/2018

Thanks for sharing - may I ask what the results was from the initial sperm frag test? xx

Of course, they were 57% which is pretty terrible, our urologist wants it down to 25 or ideally under 20. That means reducing it by more than half which will be a challenge but we will find out very soon if we’ve managed it - restest is done just waiting on the result...

Hi there
Thanks for sharing that article, male factor infertility is so wide...

Posted
12/08/2018

Hi there

Thanks for sharing that article, male factor infertility is so widely ignored and still people assume the reason we’re having IVF if all due to issues to do with me! Have shared it with my amazing husband and luckily, this testing part of our lives has brought us closer together, not further apart!!

Wishing you the best of luck for your appointment. There’s lots is of stories and research that says that lifestyle changes can make a huge difference to sperm production so hope it has adds some positivity to your journey! X

Thank you! I am very lucky too and my DH (dear husband) has been incredible and we have had a similar experience it’s only brought us closer. Fingers and toes crossed we get good news next week! Xx

Of course, they were 57% which is pretty terrible, our urologist wants it dow...

Posted
12/08/2018

Of course, they were 57% which is pretty terrible, our urologist wants it down to 25 or ideally under 20. That means reducing it by more than half which will be a challenge but we will find out very soon if we’ve managed it - restest is done just waiting on the result...

Thanks for sharing, it's good to see some more emphasis on male fertility. It really annoys me that most people assume you're doing IVF (in vitro fertilization) because of female age, when in fact half of all couples need IVF (in vitro fertilization) because of male factor. We have a mixture of both, so we need all the help we can get, but everything so far has been focused on me, with no practical advice how to improve sperm quality.

Good luck with your next appointment. Can I ask what lifestyle changes did you make to improve sperm quality? We've cut out alcohol and caffeine, and DH (dear husband) has lost some weight too, however we saw very little improvement in the sperm analysis.

Thanks for sharing, it's good to see some more emphasis on male fertility...

Posted
12/08/2018

Thanks for sharing, it's good to see some more emphasis on male fertility. It really annoys me that most people assume you're doing IVF because of male factor. We have a mixture of both, so we need all the help we can get, but everything so far has been focused on me, with no practical advice how to improve sperm quality.

Good luck with your next appointment. Can I ask what lifestyle changes did you make to improve sperm quality? We've cut out alcohol and caffeine, and DH has lost some weight too, however we saw very little improvement in the sperm analysis.

It annoys me too, we had be really pushy and proactive to get focus on him not just me. I think I must have virtually every study there is on MFI in the past few months.

As well as cutting out alcohol and caffine, he’s taking Fertilsan M and ubiquinol daily. We also saw a nutritionist and from that we are:
- trying to eat organic as much as possible
- lots of antioxidants (a quick win here is arctic blueberry powder available on Amazon worth an entire punnet in one teaspoon)
- lots of nuts - walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds and Brazil nuts
- less red meat and more fish
- lots of green leafy veggies and a cooked red veggie a day (tomatoes, carrots, peppers)
- cutting down on sugar and processed food.

In addition to all of that he’s been keeping phones and laptops away from the crotch area, he’s been sittting with a cool pack on his balls for an hour a day when we’re watching tv, and we try to avoid chemicals in cleaning products (we just buy ecover now) and toiletries - Boots do a range called Kind Natured which is affordable and free of nasties and we try and buy things packaged in glass rather than plastic. I know it sounds like a lot but actually we’ve just swapped out small things gradually and it’s really not too bad.

After about a month his count went from less than 500k to 3m and his motility doubles (the two together meaning it’s less likely to just have been down to chance) so will be interesting to see how much difference another 4 months will have made. I can let you know! Xx

It annoys me too, we had be really pushy and proactive to get focus on him no...

Posted
12/08/2018

It annoys me too, we had be really pushy and proactive to get focus on him not just me. I think I must have virtually every study there is on MFI in the past few months.

As well as cutting out alcohol and caffine, he’s taking Fertilsan M and ubiquinol daily. We also saw a nutritionist and from that we are:
- trying to eat organic as much as possible
- lots of antioxidants (a quick win here is arctic blueberry powder available on Amazon worth an entire punnet in one teaspoon)
- lots of nuts - walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds and Brazil nuts
- less red meat and more fish
- lots of green leafy veggies and a cooked red veggie a day (tomatoes, carrots, peppers)
- cutting down on sugar and processed food.

In addition to all of that he’s been keeping phones and laptops away from the crotch area, he’s been sittting with a cool pack on his balls for an hour a day when we’re watching tv, and we try to avoid chemicals in cleaning products (we just buy ecover now) and toiletries - Boots do a range called Kind Natured which is affordable and free of nasties and we try and buy things packaged in glass rather than plastic. I know it sounds like a lot but actually we’ve just swapped out small things gradually and it’s really not too bad.

After about a month his count went from less than 500k to 3m and his motility doubles (the two together meaning it’s less likely to just have been down to chance) so will be interesting to see how much difference another 4 months will have made. I can let you know! Xx

Thanks for the tips! We've also been taking CoQ10, nuts and pomegranate juice. I like the cool pack on the balls idea, not sure DH (dear husband) will go for it! Good luck with your follow up, fingers crossed the changes have worked! X

Thanks for the tips! We've also been taking CoQ10, nuts and pomegranate j...

Posted
12/08/2018

Thanks for the tips! We've also been taking CoQ10, nuts and pomegranate juice. I like the cool pack on the balls idea, not sure DH will go for it! Good luck with your follow up, fingers crossed the changes have worked! X

To convince him to try the cooling I got my DH (dear husband) to read this www.dontcookyourballs.com/icing-bal... and he decided to give it a go. All the hot weather helped too as our flat was roasting!!! Good luck to you too xx

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